Who has the rights to the 2012/2013 UEFA Champions League matches?

ITV and Sky share the rights to show UK viewers the UEFA Champions League this year.

On Tuesday nights, ITV has first choice for 16 live games during the competition, plus highlights, and Sky can show all non-ITV games.

On Wednesday nights, Sky can show as many live matches as it can broadcast on its Sky Sports channels and red button services.

ITV gets to show the live Saturday UEFA Champions League final, and Sky Sports can show delayed games in full, as well as comprehensive highlights from both nights.

Why can’t I watch matches with a 3pm kick-off?

The Saturday 3pm ‘closed window’ was created to protect attendances at lower-league games where ticket receipts are a vital source of income, but it has no effect on the Champions League matches, which are held on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Can I watch the UEFA Champions League in HD or 3D?

Sky Sports and ITV show all of their games in high definition, which can be seen on Sky, Freeview, Freesat and Virgin Media.

ITV1 HD is free to Freesat and Freeview viewers, and comes at no extra charge to Virgin Media viewers. Sky viewers will need a £10.25/month HD subscription to watch high definition on any channel, and Virgin charges £7/month extra for Sky’s premium HD channels.

Depending on the host broadcaster, some of Sky’s UEFA Championship League matches will be in 3D, on Sky 3D, which is available for no extra charge to anyone taking the top-tier Sky World HD package.

How can I watch the UEFA Champions League on Sky?

ITV1 is free on Sky, but for the full season of games, you’ll need a Sky Sports subscription.

Sky Sports 1 or 2 cost £13/month each on top of a £21.50/month Entertainment pack (total £34.50/month), or £21.50/month for both sports channels (total £43/month).

The six-channel Sky Sports pack costs £21/month plus the Entertainment pack (total £42.50/month), and includes the dedicated Sky Sports F1 channel as well as five general Sky Sports channels.

The complete Sky World package, with Sports, Movies, HD and 3D, costs £65.75/month.

How can I watch the UEFA Champions League on Virgin Media?

ITV1 and ITV1 HD are part of Virgin Media’s basic TV M+ package, for £7/month, and you’ll need this to add on any Sky premium channels.

The Sky Sports channels add £15.50/month each for Sky Sports 1 or 2, £25.75/month for Sky Sports 1 to 4 and F1. It’s an extra £7/month to upgrade all your Sky premium channels to HD, so if you want the full Sky Sports with Virgin Media, it’ll cost £32.75/month, or £39.75 in HD.

How can I watch the UEFA Champions League on TalkTalk TV?

Broadband provider TalkTalk now offers its own TV service, based on YouView, with a free Huawei YouView box for subscribers.

There’s no need for a basic subscription, but you need to have TalkTalk broadband and line rental. The cheapest deal for this is TalkTalk Plus with advance line rental, at £24/month.

ITV1 and ITV1 HD are free as part of Freeview, and a Sky Sports package of Sky Sports 1 to 4, plus F1, costs £30/month.

How can I watch the UEFA Champions League on Freeview with Top-Up TV?

ITV1 and ITV1 HD are free with Freeview on any Freeview/Freeview HD box or TV.

Top-Up TV carries both Sky Sports 1 and 2, which you can receive using the TUTV T215 set-top box for £49.99, plus a monthly subscription which gives you a viewing card.

All Freeview digital TVs have a CI (Common Inteface) slot (usually on the left hand side), and you can buy a Top-Up TV CI+ CAM adapter for £49.99 – or it’s free with any two-channel combination of sports channels. There’s also a £20 connection fee for any new subscriber.

Subscriptions are on a rolling monthly contract, with no long-term commitment. Sky Sports 1 costs £24.99/month, and both Sky Sports channels cost £33.99/month.

How can I watch the UEFA Champions League on BT Vision?

BT Vision boxes are fitted with a slot for a viewing card for Sky Sports 1 and 2. The viewing card costs £10 and the BT Vision box is free to subscribers, but you also need BT Broadband and line rental. The cheapest deal for this is BT Vision Essential, at £30.08/month.

How can I watch the UEFA Champions League on Freesat?

ITV1 and ITV1 HD are free on Freesat and Freesat HD boxes and TVs, but Sky Sports is not available on Freesat.

How can I watch the UEFA Champions League online?

ITV1 is available on the ITV Player, while Sky subscribers can watch all of their Sky Sports channels on Sky Go via broadband, WiFi or 3G, on your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, selected Android phones and Xbox 360.

If you’re not a Sky subscriber, you can get Sky Go for £35/month with Sky Sports and entertainment.

Some UEFA Champions League matches are expected to be added to Sky’s new Now TV pay-as-you-go service later this year.

Can I watch the UEFA Champions League on my iPad?

Sky Sports subscribers (with Sky, not Virgin, BT or Top Up TV) can access the UEFA Champions League Event Centre on the Sky Sports for iPad app.

It offers a selection of up to eight live matches, with a split-screen function that lets you watch two games at the same time.

There’s also a live Twitter feed with selected fan, pundit, player and manager tweets, and goal alerts for every goal in every live Sky Sports match to let you know there are video highlights available.

News stories for how to watch the UEFA Champions League on TV

Sky Sports prices could rise after rivals lose appeal

Virgin Media, BT Vision, Top Up TV and TalkTalk could be forced to raise their prices for Sky Sports channels in 2013.

The Competition Commission’s Appeals Tribunal has reversed a ruling made by media regulator Ofcom in 2010 which forced Sky to cut its wholesale rates for Sky Sports by almost a quarter.

Sky’s competitors are expected to challenge the latest decision, but if they fail, they’re likely to face a steep rise in the price they pay for the Sky Sports channels, which will probably be passed on to viewers.

The price rises will come into effect as each broadcaster renegotiates its deals with Sky over the coming year.

August 9, 2012

Welcome Recombu Digital’s UEFA Champions League viewing guide

The new season of the UEFA Champions League is already in its qualifying stages, but it kicks off properly with the group stages from September 18.

Recombu Digital has compiled a guide to who’s showing what, and how much it costs.

August 7, 2012

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